The town of Pag is a renaissance 15th century town architecturally planned and shaped in most part by the greatest Croatian constructor, sculptor, and artisan, Juraj Dalmatinac. He had begun to construct the renowned Šibenik cathedral just three years before he began work on the town of Pag. Juraj Dalmatinac brought constructive and decorative elements of the late Venetian floral gothic into the Croatian towns. All those features can be found in the concept of construction of Pag, the central position of the town’s mail square, and diagonal streets with uniform facades. In that respect, especially interesting is the cathedral which dates back to the 15th century, with its simple, frm, nondecorative front, as well as The Franciscan monastery dating back to the 16th century. Be sure not to miss The Saint Margerita Monastery, where nowadays nuns prepare tasty baškotin following an ancient recipe, the last fortress Skrivanat, a museum in the salt depots, Saint Francis and Nicola’s Church and Duke’s Palace, a place from where the town had been governed. The inhabitants of the island are especially proud of their rich cultural heritage and tradition, namely, national costume, Pag lace, summer and winter carnival and pilgrimage site for Catholics from all over the world.
DUBRAVA HANZINE- signifcant landscape and a special forest vegetation reserve on the island of Pag. The reserve borders the Adriatic sea with its sandy beaches on one, and bare rocky landscape stretching to Saint Vitus Peak on the other side. This reserve is the only forested part in the town of Pag area where the authentic holm oak forest is quite well preserved. Scientists fnd this sylvanian area quite interesting. They found out that flora of the area developed a genetic immunity to the harsh climate of this part of the island, marked by strong wind bora and salt. Geomorphology of the coastal area 6 km wide is landscape specifcity. Geologists fnd this landscape interesting because Crnike beach is nearby, which is a protected geological and paleontological reserve in which 20 million years old Miocene layers have been found.
The island of Pag can thank its rich gastronomic offer to the Mediteranean climate with hot summers and winters with a lot of precipitation and strong blows of bora. Bora is important because it makes up for 40% of all the wind blows and spreads salt all over the island. Bora can blow as strong as 250 km/h. Because of these harsh conditions selfgrown plants such as rosemary, sade, fennel and immortelle grow from the rocks. They are all very important for the cattle breeders and the beekeepers. Regardless of harsh conditions it is well known that people have been involved in agriculture since the early times. They may thank that to the felds of fertile ground and springs of fresh water. The sea around the island is rich in fsh and shell fsh because the rocky sea floor is suitable habitat for a large number of fsh which come closer to the shore during their swarm period and feed on the algae and sea weed in abundance.
